Stadium News
Breaking News from the Bench to the Bleachers
NBC Sports president Jon Miller offered a candid account this week of how the network convinced Major League Baseball to accept a below-market deal to return to broadcast television. Speaking with Puck’s John Ourand at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas, Miller confirmed that NBC was not the highest bidder when MLB…
The next World Baseball Classic won’t be sold separately, according to Sports Media Watch. Rights to the 2028 tournament will be negotiated alongside MLB’s broader media rights talks. Every national contract the league currently holds — Fox, ESPN, NBC, Netflix, Apple, TBS — expires that same year, and rather than negotiate WBC rights separately, the…
Plus: It appears Nike is ready to get into bed with Costco on a full-time basis.
The replay enhancement is proving to be a big hit with fans.
Major League Baseball’s introduction of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System, which allows players to challenge umpires’ ball-strike calls, this season has been a nearly universally acclaimed addition to the big leagues for analysts, fans, and players, and has already resulted in some great moments. Not everyone, however, has been a fan of the new…
Fresh off the most successful World Baseball Classic ever, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is interested in fixing something that isn’t broken. Manfred joined The Dan Patrick Show Wednesday morning to discuss the start of the 2026 regular season. And during the interview, Patrick asked about the success of the WBC, questioning whether it’s an event…
Half of MLB clubs saw increases in viewership for their Opening Day broadcasts, which is exactly what you’d expect in any given year. According to a report by Austin Karp in Sports Business Journal, 15 of the 29 U.S.-based MLB teams notched year-over-year viewership gains during Opening Day. In other words, about half of the…
After introducing the ABS challenge system, Rob Manfred needs to continue to modernize Major League Baseball — and, no, that doesn’t mean a salary cap.
Reader Keith Marston is a gracious man, willing to provide even Rob Manfred with a silver-lined cloud to hide behind. Sure, he realizes that baseball’s Opening Day game — an interleague night game, Yanks-Giants from the West Coast hidden to the nation behind a highest-bidder Netflix paywall, is now an ugly historical fact that won’t,...
Major League Baseball's Netflix debut avoided disaster, and commissioner Rob Manfred should be thrilled.
Plus: Watch a softball pitcher take a line drive off the face.
The league looks to nationalize its media profile more. The post MLB Media Strategy Goes National—and Fans Might Get Confused appeared first on Front Office Sports.
This originally appeared in Tuesday morning’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here and be the first to know everything going on in the sports media world. Fourteen months ago, Rob Manfred called ESPN a “shrinking platform” in a memo to teams Read more... The post Baseball’s great TV reset has arrived appeared first on Awful Announcing.
The league’s stance on prediction markets has rapidly evolved. The post MLB Makes Multiyear Prediction-Market Deal With Polymarket appeared first on Front Office Sports.
